Top Notch at the price (HP Surestore CD-Writer Plus 9150i)

Member Name: aratherbadusername

Product:	HP Surestore CD-Writer Plus 9150i
Date:	23/01/01 (148 review reads)
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Disadvantages: see text

The 'HP 9150i' is an internal Cd-Writer from Hewlett Packard. It specifications are 8x 4x 32x. For those who do not understand this sort of thing that all means that if creating a CD using a write-once CD it has the capability of 'burning' the data onto the disc at 8 times its normal speed. Therefore an 8 minute song would be burnt onto the CD in 1 minute. 4x means that a CD which has the capability of being used like a video cassette (can be recorded over and over) will record at four times standard speed once it has been written on the first time. 32x is the speed of the CD drive, most stand alone CD drives will be operating at this speed or higher now.

The drive itself is a great entry in the market of CD writers. It is really easy to install with big colour glossy instruction manuals showing how to connect up the various cables (it comes with a ide cable incase you need to attach it to another device). The instructions cover things like how to use the cables should you want the drive as a master or slave. Screws are provided to safely secure the drive inside your case.

Software is also present with the drive. You get HP Music match Jukebox. This is a fantastic product which makes it really easy to create CD's from many popular sound file formats, such as MP3. Getting the tracks in the right order is also very easy. Not only being a CD creator but the software also doubles as an alternative to Windows Media Player and has most features it has such as playlists.

Provided you have 32mb of Ram, and Windows95 (64mb if you are using one of the Windows 2000 O/S')

As for price, well it varies greatly from around £130 to £160 so shop around to get a good deal. If you are strapped for cash and are looking for a good starter then this is a good model to go for. It is by a well-known name and is competitively priced for other drives with the same specifications. But if cash is not an issue HP, and many other compan
ies do drives at around £200-300 which will also be faster. Yet if portability is an issue you could always go for the Iomega external USB device, nowhere near as fast, but no other name comes close when removable storage is the issue, this retails at about £200, but can be bought mail order for about £180.

All-in-all a brilliant buy at the price. I got mine the sales at only £120 - so glad I did.

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